Judaism – Page 29 – "A Song Every Day"

Folding, Half-Shekels, and Ego

One of the 30-cubit, goat-hair curtains on the outside of the Tabernacle is folded over the front of the tent (Exodus 26:9; see Thirty Cubits and Cloaking) for more on the curtains). Two aspects of this are emphasized in the commentary of Kedushat Levi, among others:

Folding: Folding [כפל, khaphal] is related to the idea of “klipah” [קלפה], the protective shell covering God’s Light in the world, according to mystical teaching. Kedushat Levi links the folding of the curtain and God’s cloaking, to protect humans from what they cannot withstand, adding that “folding over” implies reinforcing something not otherwise as strong as necessary. (Kedushat Levi, p. 473; full citations for Kedushat Levi, Stone Chumash in Source Materials.)

Half: Kedushat Levi also emphasizes the fact that the curtain is folded in half. He links “half” to “awe” through a play on the Hebrew words: the curtain, folded in “half” [חצי, chatzi], is linked via “crush” [מחץ, machatz] to “awe.” (More below.)

Additional thoughts on the concept of “half,” regarding the command to collect a half-shekel as part of the census embedded in the Tabernacle story, suggest a different direction:

Many commentators interpret homelitically that the requirement of half a coin alludes to the concept that no Jew is complete unless he joins with others; as long as we are in isolation, each of us is only “half” of our full potential.
— Stone Chumash, on Exodus 30:13

Combining these views on folding and half seem to suggest that any approach to God is best accomplished in community.
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Cloaking Improves Vision

Readers of Moby Dick have long skimmed the whaling sections. Love-story followers generally hurry through the “war” part of War and Peace, while others skip through the boring relationship stuff to focus on land distribution. Likewise, many Bible readers’ eyes glaze over at the close of Exodus: Some 200+ Torah verses describe plans for the Tabernacle and its furnishings. Another 200+ verses describe the actual work. Four entire weekly Torah readings are dedicated to the details of the Tabernacle, with Ki Tisa’s story of the Golden Calf in between.

Some teachers focus on general messages extracted from these passages: the importance of working collaboratively, supporting community infrastructure, or honoring the arts, for example. But others take an allegorical view, mining details rather than glossing over them. Kedushat Levi (Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, 1740 – 1809) is one of the later. And some of those details surround the number 30.
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Thirty Cubits in the Tabernacle

The inside of the Tabernacle, the desert worship space of the Israelites, is 30 cubits long. (This is worked out from directions for various components, described in Exodus 26-27.) An inside covering is composed of ten panels of “twisted linen, and indigo and purple and crimson, with cherubim, designer’s work,” each measuring 28 cubits by 4 cubits (Alter’s translation; citation below). Eleven goat-hair panels of 30 cubits by 4 cubits create an additional covering over the whole construction. (Explicit instructions in Exodus 26:1 and 26:7).

The inside coverings are joined so “that the Tabernacle be one whole” (Exodus 26:6).

26:6) that the Tabernacle be one whole
This phrase leads Abraham ibn Ezra to muse over how unity in the greater world is constituted by an interlocking of constituent parts that become a transcendent whole, as in the unity of microcosm and macrocosm. One need not read this section homelitically, as he does, in order to see the power of summation of this particular phrase.
— Alter, Robert. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. (NY: Norton, 2004)

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Time for Silence? Time for Speech?

The Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) offers thirty pairs of phrases elaborating on the theme of a “season set for everything” (Kohelet 3:1-8):

1) To every thing there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2) A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3) A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up
4) A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and time to dance;
5) A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6) A time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7) A time to rend, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8) A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time for war, and a time for peace.
— Kohelet 3:1-8 (“Old” JPS at mechon-mamre

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Investigation and Surmise

In next week’s Torah portion, Jacob is brought the many-colored coat he’d given his favorite son, Joseph. The coat has been dipped in goat’s blood to trick Jacob into believing Joseph was torn by a wild animal, rather than that his own brothers sold him into slavery (Genesis 37:23-36).

“We found this; identify, if you please: Is it your son’s tunic or not?” (verse 32; using Stone/Artscroll translation here and below)

Jacob responds: “My son’s tunic! A savage beast devoured him! Joseph has surely been torn to bits! [tarof toraf yosef]” (verse 33)

Jacob initiates no investigation. Obviously there was no forensic unit in the area to test the blood or ferret out other clues. Still, Jacob doesn’t even ask a question, as far as we know. The sons never even have to lie outright. Jacob simply jumps to a conclusion and then begins to mourn.

Later in the same portion, Joseph’s older brother Judah fails to look carefully at matters pertaining to his daughter-in-law Tamar, and she is nearly put to death by the court before he realizes his mistake(s) (Genesis 38).

Judah, too is asked: “identify, if you please [evidence in the case].” (Gen. 38:25)
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A Sexagesimal Approach

Umberto Cassuto takes a far different approach, from that of the kabbalists cited in recent posts, to numbers in the bible. He focuses instead on “the sexagesimal system, which was in general use in the ancient East” (A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, part two: from Noah to Abraham, p.32).

Cassuto’s commentary on the measurements of Noah’s ark are brief, and not terribly illuminating, simply noting that the height of thirty cubits is “half of sixty, the fundamental number of the sexagesimal system” (p.63). His numerical commentary on other verses is so extensive, however, as to prompt apology: “The reader will, I trust, forgive me for devoting to this subject about two pages of dry, analytical calculations” (p.255).

Here is one part of the subsequent remarks on the generations from Noah’s son Shem to Abraham’s father, Terah:

From Arpachshad to Nahor, the age of the patriarchs at the time of the birth of the first son is fixed, as we have stated, round about thirty, that is, half a unit of sixty years, or six units of sixty months. In three cases it is exactly thirty, and in four instances it is slightly more or less, namely, +5, +4, +2, -1, making an algebraic total of +10 years, that is, two units of sixty months. In the generation of Terah, the age rises again and reaches seventy years — fourteen units of sixty months.
— Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, part two: from Noah to Abraham, Jerusalem: Magnes, 1992. p.256

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Building Teva: Ark and Word

Here are the missing sources for yesterday’s post:

Gematria linking the measurement’s of Noah’s ark — including its 30-cubit height — to the four-letter name of God, YHVH, is credited to the 16th Century Kabbalist Isaac Luria, AKA “the Ari.” I do not have an exact citation, and perhaps there is an older source as well.

Yalkut Reuveni, a 17th Century anthology of writings from kabbalist Reuben Kahana of Prague, is credited with linking Proverbs 18:10 with Noah entering the ark.

Kabbalists, including the 18th Century Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev, also offer commentary linking Noah’s ark [teva] and the concept of ‘word’ (‘teva‘ can also mean ‘word’). This commentary thread focuses on the power and responsibility of language and thought.
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Refuge in God

Noah was called a righteous man (Gen 6:9) and the dimensions of the ark suggest that he found refuge or dwelled in God’s name…

In Genesis 6:15, God tells Noah to construct an ark that is 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. Doing the math, some teachers note that 50 = 10 (yod) X 5 (heh) = YH and 30 = 6 (vav) X 5 (heh) = VH. The width and height can then be said to represent the two parts of God’s four-letter name — YHVH.

Proverbs 18:10 says “the righteous goes to find refuge in YHVH”:

מִגְדַּל-עֹז, שֵׁם יְהוָה; בּוֹ-יָרוּץ צַדִּיק וְנִשְׂגָּב.
The name of YHVH a strong tower:
the righteous runneth into it, and is set up on high.
— Old JPS, via mechon-mamre

This idea appears in a number of contemporary sermons, and I am looking for its source(s).
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Not Quite Pi

Among Temple fixtures is a “molten sea,” a metal, fountain-type structure (1 Kings 7). It is described as 10 cubits across and 30 cubits “to compass it round about.”

The Babylonia Talmud uses this text to argue a general conclusion that circumference is three times dimeter (Eruvin 14a). This has long been discussed as an inexact approximation of pi.

Steven Dutch, a natural and applied sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, explores this concept in some depth. See “Pi in the Bible?”
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Three 30s, One Pun

Three 30s appear surround one pun in this verse from the Book of Judges:

וַיָּקָם אַחֲרָיו, יָאִיר הַגִּלְעָדִי; וַיִּשְׁפֹּט, אֶת-יִשְׂרָאֵל, עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁתַּיִם, שָׁנָה.

וַיְהִי-לוֹ שְׁלֹשִׁים בָּנִים, רֹכְבִים עַל-שְׁלֹשִׁים עֲיָרִים, וּשְׁלֹשִׁים עֲיָרִים, לָהֶם; לָהֶם יִקְרְאוּ חַוֹּת יָאִיר, עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה, אֲשֶׁר, בְּאֶרֶץ הַגִּלְעָד.

And after him arose Jair***, the Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty and two years.

And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty [עֲיָרִים*], and they had thirty [עֲיָרִים**], which are called Havvoth-jair*** unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead.
— Judges 10:3-4, Old JPS translation at Mechon-Mamre

* עֲיָרִים
Old JPS says “ass colts”; New JPS uses “burros,” with a note about the pun
** עֲיָרִים
Old JPS has “cities”; New JPS uses the pun-supporting “boroughs”
*** יָאִיר
The name “Jair” is a near homonym to the Hebrew words for burro and borough, due to the similarity of the letters ayin and aleph in Hebrew. New JPS does not extend the pun this far.
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